Saturday, September 2, 2006

Casualties of War

Collateral Damage

Look at this picture, if you can stand to.

Incredible as it may seem, Jade – the child in this photo, who suffers from what is described as a “mild” case of cerebral palsy – is five years old. She is not Iraqi or Lebanese, but she is just as much a victim of the Bush regime's campaign to “democratize” the Middle East as any of the children who have been on the receiving end of the regime's “humanitarian” terrorism.

After Jade's mother was dispatched to Mesopotamia, her live-in boyfriend was given power of attorney to care for the child. At the time Mommy was sent off to war – contemplate, for just a second, the indictment of our nation that phrase implies – Jade was healthy, vibrant, and happy.

Michael John Bowden the boyfriend to whom Jade's mother entrusted her child, was too busy vacuuming out the mother's bank account and running up her cell phone bill to feed or otherwise care for the youngster.

On August 18, Jade's grandfather, Rafael Ferrando, finally bulled his way past the boyfriend to get a look at Jade, who by that time had wasted away to about 10-12 pounds.

Ferrando sought and obtained an ex parte protective order. Jade is in the hospital. Bowden is in jail. I would love to spend about fifteen minutes in an otherwise empty cell with him.

As the Middle East morass deepens, families across the country have been broken up, many of them permanently. From the Boston Globe comes what Radley Balko calls “the saddest story you'll read today” -- a description that would have been true had I not read about Jade – describing the use of “Flat Daddy” and “Flat Mommy” cardboard cut-outs of “deployed service members [given] to spouses, children, and relatives back home” by the Maine National Guard.

“The Flat Daddies ride in cars, sit at the dinner table, visit the dentist, and even are brought to confession,” notes the story.

This belongs in the “Life Imitates The Onion” file, which is becoming downright obese as absurdities mount. When news of the “Flat Daddy” program first assaulted my offended and incredulous eyes, I was reminded of a scene from the early-80s Steve Martin film "The Lonely Guy," in which our titular hero discovers a line of life-size cardboard cut-outs he and other Lonely Guys can use to fill their otherwise drab and vacant bachelor apartments.

Military families are also subject to other forms of particularized misery.Roughly a year after I had discussed how “Debt-Pushers” -- specifically, the “payday loan” racket – target military personnel,USA Todayhas reported: “As many as one in five members of the armed services are being preyed on by loan centers set up near military bases that can charge cash-strapped military families interest of 400% or more.” The ironic “good” news here is that some soldiers with sufficiently onerous debt loads aren't deployable.

ICC, USA

A few weeks ago, before the Birch Blog was euthanized, I pointed out that Injustice For All, a video documentary I helped produce back in 1998 about the UN's International Criminal Court, seemed to foretell the advent of the Bush regime's proposals to reconfigure our judicial system:

“In order to make the somewhat abstract discussion vivid and compelling, the video opened with a mini-dramatization involving what we would now recognize as the `extraordinary rendition' of a helpless guy named John Bills. Seized by thugs in a parking lot, Mr. Bills (not to be confused with the similarly unfortunate Mr. Bill) is stuffed into an airplane, flown overseas, summarily imprisoned on the basis of a `sealed indictment,' and arraigned before a Star Chamber-style `court' where Anglo-Saxon concepts of Due Process don't exist, and the rules are rigged to guarantee conviction.

Although, as we pointed out in the video, everything depicted in our dramatization either had happened, or could reasonably be expected to happen soon, in the UN's prosecution of alleged war criminals, the scenario we created seemed a bit fanciful in 1998.

Eight years later, the abuses we depicted have become standard policy not for the UN, but for the U.S. Government, presided over by a supposed conservative and purported enemy of the UN.

And with the eager support of the GOP-led conservative movement, and the passive acceptance of the rest of it, the Bush administration is seeking to codify those abuses into law.”

Under the ICC statute, the UN's new tribunal supposedly becomes the apex judicial body on the planet, claiming jurisdiction over individuals to extradite and prosecute them for what it defines as crimes against international law. Extradition is not necessary, under that statute, if a nation's judicial institutions qualify under the principle of “complimentarity” -- meaning that they are suitable instruments to enforce the UN's decrees.

What is happening, after a fashion, is that the abuses promoted by the Bush regime – judicial kidnapping, indefinite detention without judicial review, creation of courts empowered to use hearsay evidence and defy Anglo-Saxon due process guarantees – would align our “justice” system with the vision that begat the UN's International Criminal Court and its affiliates.

“[T]he allegedly problematic features of the proposed military tribunals -- such as the permissibility of `hearsay' evidence -- are little different from some of the compromises that have been made to facilitate the work of such institutions as the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia and the permanent International Criminal Court,” noted the Journal. “Those two institutions enjoy the enthusiastic support of Human Rights Watch and other critics of the Bush Administration's tribunals.”

Bush's envisioned terror tribunals (whose jurisdiction would include U.S. citizens) would permit prosecutors to withhold evidence from defendants and to allow anonymous testimony, since doing otherwise “might mean allowing the defendant to learn the identities of informants or the existence of secret surveillance or money-tracking methods to which he could alert his al Qaeda compatriots if he is set free.”

Can you spot the pulsating fallacy in the middle of that argument? Unless you're handicapped with a Hannity-level IQ (in which case you wouldn't be reading this, or anything more challenging than a Bazooka Joe comic strip), you should be able to.In the interests of clarity, and in the event that someone is reading this to Sean the nescient, here's the answer:

The argument above assumes either a) the mere accusation of conspiracy with al-Qaeda is as good as proof; b) that the Bush administration envisions allowing al-Qaeda operatives to be set free; or c) both.

This is because the tribunals – like the UN judicial bodies they would resemble – would place the burden of proof on the accused. Having committed the foregoing offense against logic, the Journal insists that compromising due process in this fashion is appropriate because similar procedures have been used “at the Yugoslavia war crimes tribunal (ICTY) on the grounds of` `exceptional circumstance.' The ICTY has routinely allowed the admission of hearsay evidence, for example, and has allowed witnesses to conceal their identities behind voice- and image-altering devices lest they face retribution at home. Those practices certainly compromise the right of defendants to confront their accusers, yet we haven't heard the human-rights crowd crying foul.”

Apparently determined to run the table of logical fallacies, the Journal uncorks a tu quoque -- “I know you are, but what am I?” -- after planting the axiom that only the self-described “human rights community” could criticize the Bush Tribunals, and then only out of narrow, spiteful motives. By this reasoning, if that word can be tortured into applying here, the question isn't whether the Bill of Rights should be destroyed, but rather whether this should be done by the UN or the executive branch of the US government.

Right now, the entire conservative movement, without a single organized exception of which I am aware, is either actively supporting the Bush regime's assault on the Bill of Rights, or passively conniving in that crime, either out of cowardice or opportunism. In this environment, the "patriotic" alternative is to do the job of destroying our own liberties, rather than out-sourcing the task to the UN.

Of course, at the rate we're creating enemies and depleting our wealth, there will be plenty of applicants in a few years, should the destruction of our freedom prove to be another of those "jobs Americans won't do."

5 comments:

kudos to the grandfather who probably put his life at risk to see how this child was doing. this is just as bad as the recent case where the foster parents went on vacation for 3 days and left their 3 year old boy in the closet. he died. now, i'm saying this and may change my mind because i get angry when i see crap like this...some folks need to be neutered, castrated, etc. snip it , cut it, or pull them out. then say, "sorry, you don't need to be reproducing." no child should have to endure this crap. this is freakin cruel! of course, i must back off cuz this is God's decision, not mine...and some wonderful children have been born to the most irresponsable sperm/egg donors to walk the earth. case in point, i'm an uncle to two foster kids (one has since been adopted). to hear my sister relate even a tenth of these kids' stories is heart wrenching.

on the military side...

i've heard of similar cases where one spouse is deployed and the spouse/significant other left behind financially ruins the deployed person. folks need to be more careful when choosing a mate. i pray that i never go through this.

I just finished reading through your entire blog history here. I had read your blog referencing the LEAP group and now have finished the rest of your entries. Anyway...

The atrocity committed on this little girl is unconscionable. Viscerally, my opinion is that people who abuse children should be subjected to the same. Maybe the powers-that-be should put something in the water supply that prevents people from reproducing and only those that have more than three neurons linked together in series and can pass a test get the antidote that allows them to procreate. On paper I believe this to be a good idea, but just the same I'm sure the government would quickly find some way to abuse this too..oh well.

What I am wondering also is that during WWII, families were separated and I am not aware of these kinds of things occurring at the same rate as they do today. The folks at home in that time didn't need a cardboard cutout of their father or brother either. What has changed in 60 years? Have family ties of this kind really deteriorated that much?

Very sad, Will. Unfortunately, as is usual, folk will miss the big picture and focus on the single child abuse scenarios that make the news such as this case. The reality, however, is that the nation today is experiencing more real, bona fide, and ever more atrocious forms of child abuse than in the days of yore.

Is this case terrible? Yes, of course. Should Mr. Bowden be in jail? Absolutely. More than that, he should be whipped with a Roman-era cat o' nine tails and/or caned Singapore-style, and sentenced to hard labor.

Nevertheless, the immense irony to me concerning issues involving children like this is that in this age we hear ('til my ears wilt, arrgh!) how children are put on a "holy" pedestal. How? Simple. Whenever there's a tragedy/crime/disaster, that just happens to include A child or some children, the first thing out of the media maven's mouth is "a child died" or "four children were hurt." Or when politicians are searching hard for a catalyst to pass some more toxic laws for the purpose of effacing more freedom from the populace, they mention "our children's safety." Senator Allen is yacking this angle now concerning Internet predators. Parents themselves should be guaranteeing their children's safety, not government or other folk!! It's a sick racket.

And then there's the media, presumably speaking for society at large, claiming to be such immense caretakers and protectors of children vs. the parents of yesteryear. Complete utter bovine ejecta! After 33 years of unrestrained abortion, do we really and honestly believe that crap?? Or that the next stage, post-womb, is any safer from selfish reprobates like Bowden than the pre-born are from the same?? Please don't raise your hand! As Rick and I were discussing the merits thereof in a previous thread, it's better to keep your mouth SHUT and have folk think you might be a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

Of course, when one considers all the aggravating factors involved like you mention Will, such as this ongoing "humanitarian" war of occupation, should it be surprising or shocking that the destruction of families, children and their childhood, and the financial raping of military men/women by cunning loan sharks and other unscrupulous folk is becoming a way of life in the empire? Y-a-w-n, no! no! and NO!

Moral relativism rules the day. On one end of the extreme, as I alluded to earlier, children are as gods and are not responsible for anything evil they do and any parent who doesn't spare the rod is an evil demon; at the other extreme end, however, they're killed before they reach divine status (in the womb, duh) or even if they reach divine status they may be severely abused or killed, as Bowden, Yates, et al demonstrate oh so clearly.

Add to that clear moral dichotomy that, depending on the gender and/or race (in some cases) of the parent who's alleged to be at fault for the killing/abuse/molestation of a "holy" (post-womb) little one, it's either judged misfortunate or evil incarnate.

For example, if it's a mother who, say, murders her five children (Yates) it's but an anomaly, a misfortune, and/or she's viewed as merely insane. If it's a father, on the other hand, who, say, severely abuses his children (Bowden) it's damn diabolical!

Such incomprehensible nonsense is what we read/see/hear today. Thanks (or maybe not) for yet another example of it from Utah, Will.

Thankfully, this rampant "blame everything else and/or everyone else, except me, myself, and I" or "I didn't do it, it was another personality that did it" or "Hey, I was insane, dig?" mindset, regardless of what the deeds are, will be revealed as sieves and hold no more urine, uh water, someday and El Shaddai will call ALL to account.

man, you brought out some excellent points. i felt, as i was writing my post, the thing you mentioned about children being held up on a pedestal BUT used as a means to achieve many diabolical ends. there's often the "oh my God! this happened to a child!!! WE NEED A LAW!!" (in fact, like you said, the folks pushing these laws really don't care about children). also, as you point out, men are treated far worse for child abuse than women, who it seems have committed the more atrocious acts. my dad worked for the child protective services in virginia. he would sometimes tell me that it was women who were far worse at child support than men. funny how we never hear about "deadbeat moms." i guess that term would not engender enough support to get an atrocious law passed. i kinda like the sound of it though. :-)

to "oh captain my captain!"

excellent job in pointing out that long ago when separation happened, the family did not disentigrate. you're right in saying that family values, and to that i add the value of human life, have dropped to somewhere just above absolute zero in our day. just think about what does not get reported?

and back to DD:

senator allen is a work. i remember seeing him on cnn or something and the 2008 presidential race came up and i think it was larry king asked him about his prospects for running and how well he'd do. his response was, "well, i may run. i'm sure the virginian public remembers how i did as governor [smile]." yeah, i remember how he did! freakin lied about getting the car tax thrown out, and left a nearly 2 billion dollar debt!! yeah, i remember how well he did. yeah, and if the law is not to "protect the children", it's to "protect our law enforcement". as if i want them having any more leverage over the common man.

You know, Rick, my parents and my grandparents, for that matter, would be considered child abusers today.

I received my fair share of justice by belt and switch and, of course, at the time I thought them devils who were administering it. In fact, in school in the 70s I had the, seemingly at the time, ubiquitous ruler smack on the hand by the teacher and the paddle on the bottom by the principal a few times. But I deserved it!

I tended toward bein' a hellion in my early youth but my dad and granddad bent the track back straight, thankfully :). I'd hasten to mention also that schools back then could at least tolerate kids acting up at times, being kids, not today. They're drugged and molded into veritable zombies who simply "follow orders" obediently. Instead of teaching a RIGHT and a WRONG way to behave, since we harbor no such absolute view, let's simply drug them to follow our arbitrary mindless dogma, unquestionably. My blood pressure is rising again, I'd better shut the valve down :P.

Anyway, about the "holy" pedestal concept, you got the precise idea! That's exactly how I see it and attempted to explain it. I'm glad others can perceive these things in light of the big picture. But without a grasp of the panoramic, such perception is usually lost. Sadly, many Americans' attention spans vary wildly from microseconds for critical topics requiring one to think and ponder to hours for mindless "bread and circuses," as Juvenal would say.

With this all in mind, never ridicule or dismiss a "day dreamer" off the cuff without further examination. They may actually be thinking and not dreamin'!